No. 229, 6 December 1994

RUSSIA
YELTSIN'S WARNINGS AT CSCE. Addressing the CSCE summit in Budapest
on 5 December, Russian President Boris Yeltsin attacked NATO's
plans to meet the new democracies' wish to be admitted into the
alliance. He warned against "sowing the seeds of distrust" and
"plunging Europe into a cold peace" through an enlargement of
NATO. Speaking as he now tends to do in international forums on
behalf of "the peoples of the CIS," Yeltsin claimed that it is
their "wish that the CIS continue to grow stronger." He also
became the exception in attacking fellow-CSCE countries by
accusing the Baltic and unnamed CIS states of violating the rights
of Russians and of the Orthodox Church, without substantiating the
charges. Yeltsin persisted in claiming a "peacemaking mission" for
Russia in CIS states and in calling for turning the CSCE into a
coordinating security body for all Europe that would in effect
sideline NATO. Western agencies quoted diplomats at the conference
as terming Yeltsin's speech "uncompromising," "harsh," "blunt,"
and generating "rancor" and "renewed tension between Moscow and
the West." -- Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.
GRACHEV ADMITS RUSSIAN BOMBING OF CHECHNYA. Russian Defense
Minister Pavel Grachev arrived on the Chechen border on 5
December, along with Interior Minister Viktor Yerin and
Counterintelligence chief Sergei Stepashin, to visit Russian
troops. Grachev told correspondents that Russian warplanes had
bombed targets in Chechnya last week and Russian ground troops had
fought alongside Chechen opposition forces trying to oust the
government of Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudaev, Russian and
Western agencies reported. Grachev said that he was ready to meet
with Dudaev and Chechen opposition leader Umar Avturkhanov to hear
their ideas on how to achieve a peaceful settlement in Chechnya.
Chechen Vice President Zelimkhan Yandarbiev told AFP that the
Chechen government was willing to talk to Moscow but considers the
republic's independence to be non-negotiable. -- Bess Brown,
RFE/RL, Inc.
LEBED ATTACKS YELTSIN, GRACHEV, FSK. Lt.-General Aleksandr Lebed,
commander of Russia's 14th Army in Moldova, called on Yeltsin via
Interfax on 2 December to initiate direct negotiations with
[Chechen President Dzokhar] Dudaev in order to resolve the crisis
in Chechnya "quickly and effectively." "I don't know why Yeltsin
does not invite Dudaev to sit down and negotiate a compromise,"
Lebed wondered aloud. He also chastised Moscow's strategy in
Chechnya for betting on "some sort of opposition which they've put
together" and for "pitting Chechen against Chechen." On Russian TV
on 3 December, Lebed accused Russia's Federal Counterintelligence
Service (FSK) of having recruited a Tiraspol woman to spy on him.
Lebed produced the woman and her case officer, an FSK major, both
of whom confessed on the progam. Lebed promised to confront FSK
chief Sergei Stepashin with the affair and "cause a scandal
throughout Russia." In no. 44-45 of Ogonek, Lebed renewed his call
for Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev to resign for the sake
of the armed forces' honor and prestige. Lebed said Grachev
"allows anyone to wipe their feet on him." Lebed came close to
calling for Yeltsin's resignation by remarking that "the minister
(Grachev) is linked by close personal relations to the commander
in chief . . . They will only resign together." -- Vladimir Socor,
RFE/RL, Inc.
RUSSIA RENEWS BID TO CHANGE CFE TREATY . . . Col.-Gen. Vladimir
Zhurbenko--the first deputy chief of the General Staff--told a
Moscow press conference on 5 December that Russia was renewing its
efforts to change the 1990 treaty on conventional armed forces in
Europe (CFE treaty). Russia has long objected to Article V of the
treaty which places limits on the armaments Russia can deploy in
the Leningrad and North Caucasus military districts. The Russian
military claims that these flank limits do not allow them to
properly defend Russia's troubled southern borders. According to
ITAR-TASS and Interfax, Zhurbenko indicated that the Russians had
suggested several solutions to the Joint Consultative Group in
Vienna. One would be to temporarily suspend Article V limits while
another would be to remove the North Caucasus military districts
from the CFE flanks and place it in another treaty zone. Neither
proposal is new--Zhurbenko suggested the latter one himself in
October 1993--and the other treaty parties have reacted coolly to
the proposals in the past. -- Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.
. . . WHILE MEETING DESTRUCTION QUOTAS. Zhurbenko reported that
Russia had met its CFE treaty destruction quota. As of 17
November--when the second destruction phase ended--Russia had
disposed of 7,464 items of military equipment limited by the
treaty. This was more than 60 percent of the items that must
eventually be destroyed. He released other figures, however, which
indicated Russia was not doing as well in meeting the terms of
destruction obligations that complement the CFE treaty. He said
that 754 items belonging to the coast defense and marine forces
had been disposed of--just 20 percent of the total obligation. The
reduction of equipment located in Asian Russia was going at an
even slower pace. Zhurbenko reported that 1,255 items had been
destroyed or converted there, which is less than seven percent of
the required cuts. -- Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.
TWO GENERALS NOMINATED FOR CONSTITUTIONAL COURT POSTS. Russian
President Boris Yeltsin has named two more candidates for
vacancies on the Russian Constitutional Court, ITAR-TASS reported
on 1 December. Nominated were Sergei Vitsin, holder of a chair at
the Moscow Higher School of Police, and Vladimir Strekozov, deputy
head of the Military Academy of Economics, Finance and Law. Since
the adoption of the new constitution on 12 December 1993, four
judges have been elected, while several attempts to fill the
remaining two vacancies have failed because the upper house of
parliament, the Federation Council, has refused to approve
Yeltsin's candidates. According to a new law, the court cannot
resume work until all 19 judges are elected. Both of Yeltsin's
latest candidates are major-generals, Vitsin in the internal
affairs ministry and Strekozov in the justice ministry. Both are
unknown to the general public, a factor that has helped other
candidates win the Federation Council's approval. -- Julia
Wishnevsky, RFE/RL, Inc.
WORLD WAR II SOVIET DEATH TOLL TO BE ANNOUNCED. General Dmitri
Volkogonov, chairman of the president's commission on military
prisoners and MIAs, announced on 2 December that he would reveal
the exact number of Soviet citizens killed during World War II by
next year's fiftieth anniversary of victory. According to
Interfax, he said that the figure of 27 million killed generally
accepted today should be "corrected." He also revealed that 44
Soviet officers and soldiers disappeared in Hungary in 1956, and
some 300 were missing-in-action in Afghanistan--some still being
kept prisoner. He also said that a Colonel Udalov, who disappeared
in Ethiopia in 1978, was still alive and working in a stone quarry
in Somalia as late as 1989. -- Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.
CHEMICAL WEAPONS PRODUCTION CONTINUING? A defense ministry
spokesman hedged on 5 December when asked whether Russia was still
testing and producing chemical weapons. As quoted by Reuters on 5
December, the unnamed spokesman said "It depends where and what
exactly you are referring to. . . . We cannot say that all
chemical weapons production and testing has stopped altogether."
That same day the Russian Union for Chemical Security held a press
conference calling for Russia to ratify the Chemical Weapons
Convention treaty banning the production, use, or possession of
chemical weapons. Interfax reported that Vladimir Petrenko,
chairman of the Saratov Union for Chemical Security, said that
unauthorized destruction of some chemical weapons had taken place
at Shikhany, in the Saratov region, without proper precautions to
protect the environment. -- Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.
TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
SHEVARDNADZE CONDEMNS KILLING OF OPPOSITION LEADER. Soon after the
3 December assassination of Georgii Chanturia, one of the leaders
of the Georgian opposition, Georgian parliament chairman Eduard
Shevardnadze issued a statement condemning the killing and told an
emergency Cabinet meeting that failure to find the killers quickly
would cause Georgia to be perceived as utterly lawless, Russian
and Western agencies reported. The National Democratic Party,
which Chanturia headed, denounced the killing as an attack by
"imperialist Russian forces and anti-democratic Georgian forces."
As of 5 December, the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs had
been unable to find the killers. Shevardnadze announced that the
assassination had caused him to delay his departure for the CSCE
gathering in Budapest, but he did not intend to bow to the demands
of some political leaders who wanted him to dismiss some
government ministers in connection with Chanturia's assassination.
-- Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.
NEW PRIME MINISTER IN TAJIKISTAN. Tajikistan's President Imomali
Rakhmonov has nominated his chief adviser on economics, Dzhamshed
Karimov, to be the country's new prime minister, Russian and
Western agencies reported on 2 and 5 December. Under Tajikistan's
new constitution, the nomination must be approved by the new
parliament, which is to be elected on 26 February 1995. Karimov is
a former Gosplan official and Communist Party functionary.
Rakhmonov told the Supreme Soviet session at which he announced
the Karimov appointment that he intends to reduce the number of
ministers from 26 to 18 and reduce the number of government
committees and departments from six to three. The changes,
according to Rakhmonov, will accelerate political and economic
reforms. -- Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.
CIS
CENTRISTS CALL FOR EURASIAN COMMUNITY. In a statement reported by
Russian media from 30 November to 4 December, the leaders of the
"centrist" grouping Third Force called for the reintegration of
ex-Soviet republics into a new economic, political, and military
"Eurasian Community." Third Force is comprised of Civic Union, led
by the powerful representative of industrial interests, Arkadii
Volsky; Igor Smirnov's All-Russian Renewal Union; Vyacheslav
Grechnev's Party of the Majority; and the Agroindustrial Union. As
a first step toward reunification, Third Force calls for Russia's
reintegration with Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan; the matter
will be discussed at a Civic Congress of representatives of those
four states in Moscow later this month. This should be followed by
referendums in all ex-Soviet republics on the matter of
reconstituting the Union. Third Force expects active support for
the plan from private business interests in the former republics.
Volsky and the other leaders see the Eurasian community as a
succcessor not of the USSR but of the Russian Empire "in which we
all lived together for 300 to 500 years." -- Vladimir Socor,
RFE/RL, Inc.
AGRICULTURAL BODY SETS AGENDA. Meeting in Minsk on 2 December, the
Intergovernmental Council for the Coordination of Issues of the
Agro-Industrial Complex set up a Permanent Council and Secretariat
to be headquartered in Moscow, Russian agencies reported. All
twelve CIS members signed an agreement on cooperation in promoting
agrarian reforms. Russian Deputy Prime Minister (responsible for
agriculture) Aleksandr Zaveriukha told the session that Russia's
food supply in the years ahead could only be planned with account
taken of imports from CIS states, particularly meat and meat
products, milk and dairy products, and sugar. He called for
concerted policies in agricultural reform, sharing of crop
information, and various forms of technical cooperation as a first
step toward a common CIS agricultural market. Certain CIS states
who traditionally supply the Russian market, however, are
interested in the immediate removal of tariff barriers, some of
which reflect the protectionist interests of Russia's agricultural
lobby. -- Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
UKRAINE, BELARUS, KAZAKHSTAN ACCEDE TO NPT. At a ceremony in
Budapest within the framework of the Conference on Security and
Cooperation in Europe summit, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan
formally joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, international
agencies reported on 5 December. The way is now paved toward the
implementation of the START-1 Treaty reducing the long-range
nuclear weapons held by the United States and the former Soviet
Union. US President Bill Clinton, attending the ceremony along
with other world leaders, said the US and former Soviet nuclear
arsenals will be cut by more than 60 percent from the Cold War
peak. He noted that Ukraine's decision to renounce the hundreds of
warheads it inherited was a "bold move away from the nuclear
precipice." Ukraine had long accepted in principle that it should
become a non-nuclear state but had insisted that it receive
security and other guarantees from the five major nuclear powers.
The United States, Britain, and Russia gave assurances that they
will respect Ukraine's territorial integrity and will not attack
it. France and China have issued similar guarantees. Ukraine is
expected to become a weapons-free nation around the turn of the
century. Belarus and Kazakhstan have already given up their
nuclear arsenals. -- Jan Cleave, RFE/RL, Inc.
IZETBEGOVIC BLASTS WESTERN BOSNIAN POLICY. The Bosnian crisis
featured in several speeches at the CSCE summit in Budapest on 5
December, and nowhere more than in the address by the embattled
republic's President Alija Izetbegovic. International media quoted
him as saying " What is happening in Bosnia is the weakness of the
West" and "Paris and London have from the very beginning taken the
role of Serbia's protectors." He noted, in reference to Serbian
attacks on the UN-declared "safe area" of Bihac, that "NATO cannot
save one endangered city." Izetbegovic also painted a bleak
picture of the new world order as a result of this conflict:
"Against a serious illness they applied tranquilizers. The result
will be a discredited United Nations, a ruined NATO, Europeans
demoralized by a feeling of inability to respond to the first
crisis after the cold war. I hope that the friends of Bosnia did
not take offense at these words. As for those others, after
everything which has occurred, I do not care." -- Patrick Moore,
RFE/RL, Inc.
OTHER KEY LEADERS DISCUSS BOSNIA. Croatian President Franjo
Tudjman, also attending the CSCE summit, expressed similar
sentiments to those of Izetbegovic, even if his language was
milder. He said Western policy had been "hesitant and lukewarm"
and warned again that Croatia may have to use force to regain the
approximately one-third of its territory under rebel Serbian
control. British Prime Minister John Major did not respond to
Izetbegovic's criticism of London's policies but charged the
Bosnian Serbs with creating an unacceptable situation by not
cooperating with peacekeepers. He also repeated Britain's
now-frequent threat to pull its troops out if need be. Turkish
Prime Minister Tansu Ciller pointed out that "we have accepted
certain principles in the CSCE. Unless we give life to them, they
are irrelevant." US President Bill Clinton, continuing his
recently adopted stance of not blaming any side in the conflict,
called on all of them to "end your aggression, agree a cease-fire,
[and] settle your differences around the negotiating table." He
concluded that "we must work to prevent future Bosnias." RFE/RL's
South Slavic Service commentator, however, when asked what he
thought would come out of the conference as far as Bosnia is
concerned, answered "nothing." -- Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.
SERBS STILL HOLD 350 UNPROFOR SOLDIERS HOSTAGE. Despite having
released seven Ukrainians on 5 December, Bosnian Serb forces
continue to hold about 350 of their international colleagues. The
BBC quoted British Defense Secretary Malcolm Rifkind as saying
that continued harassment would make the peace-keepers' mission
pointless. The New York Times on 6 December cites a UN spokesman
in Sarajevo as saying that "the international community should
understand that the Bosnian Serbs are not only waging war against
the Bosnian government in Bihac, they are targeting UNPROFOR . . .
in a carefully calculated insult against the United Nations." The
newspaper adds that Serbs have begun using incendiary shells
against Velika Kladusa, where 500 government troops are holding
out against 2,000 attackers. Another UN officer said the Serbian
attackers "don't want to talk, they want to kill. What does the
West think it can do, say 'pretty please' and the bloodshed will
stop?" The Washington Post reports. -- Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.
BOSNIAN SERB DELEGATION MEETS WITH MILOSEVIC. International media
reported on 5 December that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic
had received a delegation of 15-20 representatives from Pale,
headed by Bosnian Serb "Foreign Minister" Aleksa Buha. A joint
declaration said the Bosnian Serbs should study the possible
acceptance of the "Contact Group's" plan, provided constitutional
issues were clarified and changes made in the proposed map. A BBC
commentator said the delegation was sent with Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic's approval and that its arrival in Belgrade was a
positive signal from Pale to Milosevic and the Contact Group. The
commentator also noted, however, that Karadzic could have sent
someone more senior than Buha if he had wanted to signal something
major. Other media offered different interpretations, however.
Reuters suggested that the delegation members were part of a
parliamentary peace faction that had tried to launch a rebellion
against Karadzic within his own party. RFE/RL's South Slavic
Service noted several representatives present from Banja Luka and
Bijeljina, who are thought to be politically closer to Milosevic
than to Karadzic. -- Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.
GREECE TO ALLOW SOME FUEL TO MACEDONIA. Greece has agreed to
partly lift its blockade of Macedonia and allow 5,000 tons of fuel
to pass across the border for use in schools and hospitals,
international news agencies reported on 5 December. Many observers
in Athens and elsewhere have been expecting Greece to try to
improve ties with Macedonia in the wake of the recent presidential
and parliamentary elections in that former Yugoslav republic. --
Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.
SLOVENE VOTERS REBUFF CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS. Initial returns from
the 4 December Slovenian municipal and local elections suggest
that voters think poorly of the right-of-center Christian
Democrats of former Foreign Minister Lojze Peterle. They seem to
favor instead the opposition nationalist Social Democrats of
former Defense Minister Janez Jansa, as well as the left-of-center
governing coalition parties, including the former Communists and
Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek's Liberal Democrats. Independents
and the opposition Peasant Party also did well. A computer glitch
has held up the final tally of returns. -- Patrick Moore, RFE/RL,
Inc.
WALESA IN JAPAN AND BUDAPEST. Polish President Lech Walesa on 6
December arrived in Japan for a three-day visit during which he is
expected to sign agreements on bilateral economic and cultural
cooperation. He will also try to persuade the Japanese to increase
their investments in Poland. In an interview with Rzeczpospolita
on 6 December, Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama said his
country intends to promote the expansion of small and medium-sized
businesses and is interested in environmental issues. Walesa flew
to Japan from Budapest, where he took part in the CSCE summit
meeting. According to Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita on 6
December, the Polish president spoke strongly in defense of
Poland's plans to join NATO. He also was critical of Russia's
opposition to the eastward expansion of the Western security
alliance, arguing that "no country has the right to prevent the
others from fulfilling their objectives." -- Jan de Weydenthal,
RFE/RL, Inc.
HAVEL ON NATO MEMBERSHIP. Czech President Vaclav Havel met with
NATO General-Secretary Willy Claes on 5 December in Budapest,
where both politicians were taking part in the CSCE summit. CTK
reports Havel as saying that the Czech Republic is ready to start
talks on admission to NATO in 1995. The two politicians agreed
that the purpose of NATO's expansion is not to isolate Russia and
create "a new Yalta." Rather, Havel argued, NATO is trying to
build a partnership with Russia and the CSCE could be a vehicle
for such relations. Earlier the same day, Havel told Russian
President Boris Yeltsin and Russian Foreign Minister Andrei
Kozyrev that the Czech Republic is in favor of speedy negotiations
on its admission to NATO. Havel argued that this objective must be
seen in the light of his country's historical experience. -- Jiri
Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.
CZECH GOVERNMENT SUBMITS BUDGET FOR 1995. The Czech government on
5 December submitted to the parliament its proposal for the 1995
state budget. The proposal envisages a balanced budget, with
budgetary expenditures and income totaling 411.5 billion koruny
each. The government also proposed that the National Property
Fund, the country's top privatization agency, provide 10.7 billion
koruny to pay the interest on the country's state debt. -- Jiri
Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.
SLOVAK POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS. Sergej Kozlik, deputy chairman of
Vladimir Meciar's Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, told
journalists in Bratislava on 5 December that the new Slovak
government should be formed between 10 and 15 December. Kozlik
said agreement had been reached on both the division of ministries
among the MDS and its coalition partners (the Association of
Slovak Workers and the Slovak National Party) and the choice of
ministers. Meanwhile, TASR announced that representatives of the
MDS and the Party of the Democratic Left are to meet on 6 or 7
December to discuss economic and social issues. PDL chairman Peter
Weiss told a press conference in Bratislava on 5 December that the
talks will not focus on a possible coalition between the two
parties. "We have done everything possible to create a broad
coalition government," Weiss said. Also on 5 December, two ethnic
Hungarian parties--Coexistence and the Hungarian Civic
Party--signed an agreement on forming a joint caucus in the Slovak
parliament. The parties' chairmen, Miklos Duray and Laszlo Nagy,
told journalists in Bratislava that there will be two Hungarian
ethnic caucuses in the Slovak parliament: their joint caucus and
that of the Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement. -- Jiri Pehe,
RFE/RL, Inc.
HUNGARIAN PREMIER DISCUSSES NATO AND REFORMS . . . In a meeting
with US President Clinton at the CSCE summit, Gyula Horn
reiterated Hungary's commitment to becoming a member of NATO and
continuing with economic reforms to gain full EU membership, MTI
reports on 5 December. Horn asked for increased US investment in
Hungary, while Clinton promised support for Hungary's goals and
stressed the importance the US attaches to Hungary's EU
membership. -- Edith Oltay, RFE/RL, Inc.
. . . AND MEETS WITH ROMANIAN PREMIER. Horn and Romanian President
Ion Iliescu met in Budapest on 4 December to discuss bilateral
relations, MTI reported the next day. Horn said Hungary would like
to expand its relations with Romania "in the spirit of historical
reconciliation" and stressed the importance of the negotiations on
a bilateral treaty. He added that it would be a positive signal
not only for bilateral relations but also for the Central European
region if Hungary and Romania were among the first countries to
sign the European Union's document on national minorities.
Iliescu, for his part, said the talks with Horn had been "open and
realistic" and had proved that "Romanian-Hungarian relations are
not conflictual," according to Radio Bucharest on 5 December. He
welcomed the "open and realistic manner" displayed by the Horn
cabinet in approaching the problem of "historical reconciliation"
through promoting contacts at high level. But he added that such
contacts should not be conditional on agreement already having
been reached on "points of difference." -- Edith Oltay and Michael
Shafir, RFE/RL, Inc.
ILIESCU AT CSCE SUMMIT. Addressing the CSCE summit on 5 December,
Romanian President Ion Iliescu reiterated Romania's
"determination" to become a full NATO member, saying that Romania
did not merely wish to be a "consumer of security but also a
producer of security." On 4 and 5 December, Iliescu met with
Moldovan President Mircea Snegur, Bulgarian President Zhelu
Zhelev, Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Horn, Spanish Premier
Felipe Gonzales, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, and British
Prime Minister John Major. Romanian Television on 5 December
reported that Iliescu had discussed with Snegur the
"intensification of contacts at all levels." The Moldovan side was
reported to have declared it was waiting for the visit of Romanian
Premier Nicolae Vacaroiu. -- Michael Shafir, RFE/RL, Inc.
HDFR PROTESTS "MILITARIZATION" OF SZEKLER REGION. The Odorhei
branch of the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania has
protested what it calls "the militarization" of the territories
largely inhabited by the Szekler Magyar minority. The protest was
made public on 4 December by the independent news agency Arpress.
The HDFR says that since December 1989, the Romanian army has
taken "numerous steps that disturb the peace of the region's
inhabitants." It says these steps are "unjustified" and adds that
police forces in the region inhabited by the Szeklers are three
times larger than elsewhere in Romania. The HDFR also says that
such measures are "hardly leading to the promotion of
[Romanian-Hungarian] trust," which is particularly needed on the
eve of concluding the Romanian-Hungarian basic treaty. -- Michael
Shafir, RFE/RL, Inc.
ALBANIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY SEEKS NEW ALLIES. The Albanian
Democratic Party has held talks for the first time with leaders of
the Balli Kombetar Party, Rilindja Demokratike reports. The
nationalist BKP is the successor to the World War II resistance
movement that eventually collaborated with the Germans against the
Communists. The unexpected dialogue between the two parties may be
a result of President Sali Berisha's referendum debacle last
month. The ADP is currently seeking new political allies and has
called for a dialogue with various parties, including the
Socialists (former Communists). -- Louis Zanga, RFE/RL, Inc.
ALBANIAN-US MILITARY MANEUVERS. Preparations are under way for
another round of Albanian-US military maneuvers, Rilindja
Demokratike reported on 2 December. Two weeks ago, the first ever
Albanian-US maneuvers took place in Albania. At the meeting
between a US military delegation and Albanian Army Chief of Staff
Sheme Kosova, those maneuvers were evaluated as "successful."
Future plans of bilateral cooperation within the framework of the
Partnership for Peace were also discussed. -- Louis Zanga, RFE/RL,
Inc.
US GROUPS BALTIC, NORDIC NATIONS TOGETHER. The US State Department
has removed Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from its Office of
Eastern Europe and joined them with Finland, Sweden, Norway,
Denmark, and Iceland to create a single office for Baltic and
Nordic nations, BNS reported on 5 December. A press attache at the
US embassy in Tallinn said the transfer showed US recognition of
the Baltic States' achievements in the areas of democracy and the
economy and would affect the implementation of various US projects
in the region. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke said
in a television interview that the decision was "a small but
important bureaucratic change to reflect the new reality, which is
that when we think of the Baltic nations, we think of them in
conjunction with nations of Western Europe and Scandinavia." --
Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.
ESTONIAN PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES PARLIAMENT ELECTIONS. Lennart Meri on
5 December announced that the next parliament elections would be
held on 5 March 1995, BNS reports. A proportional representation
system is to be used for the elections to the 101-seat
legislature, with a party or bloc needing a minimum of 5 percent
of the vote to gain seats. Eight new political parties have been
registered this fall, and five others--including two Russian
parties, the Russian Party of Estonia and Estonian People's
Assembly Party--have handed in registration applications to the
Interior Ministry. -- Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.
LATVIAN TEACHERS ON STRIKE. Some 14,000 Latvian teachers and
educators began a warning strike on 5 December, demanding higher
wages. The strike is expected to continue on 6 December and the
number of strikers to increase, BNS reported. The government,
while expressing sympathy for the teachers, said it did not have
the resources to meet their demands. -- Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL,
Inc.
[As of 1200 CET] (Compiled by Jan Cleave and Pete Baumgartner)
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